What you need to know to stay compliant — Stripo.email

If you’re a marketer or salesperson who spends most of your time writing emails, crafting campaigns, building mailing lists, or chasing leads, then legal language and regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) might feel outside your daily comfort zone or even a bit of a distraction.

However, if you understand the principles of GDPR, you can simultaneously avoid the risks of noncompliance and subsequent investigation and be confident that your email campaigns will not undermine the trust of your audience.

This article explores how GDPR affects business-to-business (B2B) email marketing and offers practical guidance on how to apply its legal foundations to real-world marketing practices.

What is GDPR, and how does it affect B2B email marketing?

The GDPR is a EU law that regulates how businesses handle the personal information of individuals. It applies to any organization that collects, uses, and stores the personal data of EU citizens, regardless of where the organization is located. According to the European Commission, personal data refer to any information that makes someone identifiable, such as full names, phone numbers, IP addresses, and personal or business emails.

In B2B activities, your customer base consists of other companies. However, your marketing and sales teams interact with individuals within those companies, and these individuals have privacy rights that are protected under the GDPR.

The only type of business email that falls outside the scope of “personal data” is one that isn’t linked to an identifiable individual, such as info@company.com or support@company.com.

If we’re talking specifically about B2B email marketing, there are two lawful bases for processing data:

• legitimate interest, when you can justify your outreach as useful and non-intrusive;
• consent, when people opt in via a sign-up form.

In other words, under legitimate interest, you can send cold emails only if the person you’re contacting wouldn’t find it unexpected and disruptive. If you’re reaching out to a business email address with a message that’s clearly relevant to the recipient’s job role, it may be something they reasonably expect, even without having explicitly opted in.

On the other hand, if you’ve gained verifiable consent through a sign-up form, your recipients have explicitly agreed to receive specific emails from you.

Key principles of GDPR

Before we dive into best practices for ensuring GDPR compliance in B2B email marketing, let’s first understand the cornerstones of the GDPR that define how personal data must be handled under the law.

The legal terminology can feel overwhelming at first, especially when your daily focus is on building email marketing campaigns and driving leads, not interpreting regulations. But grasping these principles is essential — not only to avoid compliance risks but also to ensure your marketing communication doesn’t land in spam folders or undermine trust.

Here’s a quick overview of the seven key principles of GDPR and how they relate to B2B email marketing:

1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency

You must process personal data in a legal, fair, and open way. What it means for direct marketing: Always make it clear why you’re contacting someone and what data you’re using. Don’t hide behind vague policies or misleading subject lines.

2. Purpose limitation

Collect data only for specific direct marketing purposes. Don’t use it for unrelated activities. For example, if someone gave you their email to download a whitepaper, you can’t automatically add them to your general newsletter unless you clearly said so upfront. Many companies assume that offering a valuable free resource implies explicit consent for follow-up, but what’s commonly done isn’t always legally compliant.

3. Data minimization

Only collect and use the minimum amount of data necessary for your intended purpose. Don’t ask for a phone number if you’re just sending an email campaign. Stick to what’s relevant.

4. Accuracy

Ensure personal data are accurate and up to date. In email marketing, regularly clean your contact lists. Remove inactive, bounced, or outdated addresses, both to stay compliant and to maintain good deliverability.

5. Storage limitation

Don’t keep customer data longer than necessary. Make it a habit to archive or delete old contact lists or leads who haven’t engaged in a long time, unless there’s a clear business reason to keep them.

6. Integrity and confidentiality

Protect personal data from loss, theft, or unauthorized access. Make sure that your email marketing platform has appropriate security measures, such as encryption, access control, and two-factor authentication.

7. Accountability

You’re responsible for complying with all these principles — and you must be able to demonstrate your GDPR compliance. This means keeping records of consent, documenting your data collection procedures, and performing regular compliance checks.

Practical compliance tips for B2B email marketing

Now that we’ve covered the legal foundations of GDPR, let’s look at how to apply them in your day-to-day marketing activities. These tips will help you run effective B2B email marketing campaigns without crossing any regulatory lines or losing the trust of your audience.

1. Choose the right lawful basis and document your decision

Under the GDPR, every time you send a B2B marketing email, you must have a lawful reason for doing so. In most cases, this means relying on either explicit consent or legitimate interest which we’ve already discussed.

What matters here is being able to justify and document your choice. If you’re using consent, make sure it’s properly recorded and can be traced. If you’re relying on legitimate interest, conduct a legitimate interest assessment (LIA) — an internal review process that weighs your business need against the recipient’s privacy expectations.

Think of this step as the legal groundwork — you don’t need to explain your reasoning in the email itself, but you should be ready to show it if someone raises a complaint or you face an audit.

2. Collect explicit consent when needed

The GDPR requires that consent be freely given, specific, and unambiguous. This applies to both new leads and existing customers.

Therefore, you should:

1. Avoid prechecked boxes. Consent must be an active choice, not assumed.
2. Clearly explain what kind of email the person will receive. Be transparent: Is it a newsletter, promotional offers, or product updates?
3. Use a separate checkbox if consent is bundled with another action. For example, if someone is downloading a whitepaper, you can’t assume they agree to marketing emails, too. There should be a separate unticked box asking them to opt in to emails.

It’s also good practice to use double opt-in, where the potential subscriber receives an email after signing up and is asked to confirm their subscription. This confirmation ensures that the consent is valid and provides proof in case it’s ever challenged by a user or regulatory authority.

3. Make it easy to opt out

Every marketing email you send must include a simple visible way for recipients to unsubscribe. This way, you’ll comply with GDPR requirements, maintain a good sender reputation, and build subscriber trust.

4. Be transparent and use plain language

The GDPR emphasizes clarity and transparency in how personal data are used. To protect yourself from claims of misleading practices:

1. Use plain, nonlegal language in your sign-up forms, privacy notices, and email footers.
2. Clearly explain why you’re collecting someone’s data, what you’ll use it for, and how they can contact you or withdraw consent.

5. Keep your email lists accurate and up to date

The GDPR requires that customer data be accurate and not retained longer than necessary. In email marketing, focus on reviewing your contact lists:

1. Regularly remove bounced, outdated, or invalid contacts.
2. For inactive contacts (people who haven’t opened or clicked in a long time), consider:
   • sending a re-engagement email asking if they still want to hear from you;
   • moving them to a low-frequency segment to protect your sender reputation and improve overall email deliverability.

This practice supports GDPR’s principles of data minimization, accuracy, and storage limitation while also improving the performance of your email marketing efforts.

6. Provide a clear and accessible privacy policy

Make sure your website and emails link to a privacy policy that explains how you collect, process, and protect customers’ personal data. The privacy policy should also include:

• contact details for data inquiries;
• lawful basis for data processing;
• information on how to withdraw consent or file a complaint.

Review your privacy policy regularly, especially if your marketing tools or data collection methods change. Read our latest article on how to migrate to another ESP without violating GDPR, CAN-SPAM, or other local privacy laws.

7. Protect customer data with strong security measures

While most marketers focus on opt-ins and unsubscribe links, GDPR also requires that you protect the data you handle. In fact, some of the most highly publicized — and costly — GDPR compliance breaches have been related to data breaches caused by insufficient data security measures. A notable example is the legal action involving Sony over a malicious attack on PlayStation Network user data.

To reduce the risk of penalties from data leaks, your team should:

• choose tools that offer data encryption and secure storage;
• avoid the use of unprotected spreadsheets or shared drives for storing contact lists;
• have an internal data protection policy your team members can access;
• be ready to report a data breach to authorities if one occurs.

8. Secure data sharing through a trusted Data Processing Agreement

A data processing agreement (DPA) is a legal contract required under GDPR when a data controller (your company) shares personal data with a data processor (for example, your email service provider, CRM, or consent management platform). It ensures that the processor handles the data securely and in line with the GDPR requirements.

Most reputable email and CRM tools provide a standard DPA — often available in their legal or privacy sections. In many cases, accepting their terms includes the DPA by default, but you can also request a signed copy for your records if needed.

If a regulatory authority investigates your business due to a data breach, privacy complaint, or improper handling of subscriber data, having a DPA shows that:

• you’ve taken appropriate legal steps to protect personal data;
• you’ve defined responsibilities with the processor;
• you’re not at fault for something your processor did beyond your control because you had a contract requiring them to comply with GDPR.

Enforcement and penalties

Ignoring GDPR can expose any company to financial and reputational risks. Even a single complaint can trigger an investigation, so taking GDPR seriously in your B2B email marketing is a long-term investment in your business. Let’s take a closer look at how the GDPR is enforced and what the real consequences of non-compliance can be.

Enforcement: How GDPR is applied in the EU and UK

Each EEA country has its own independent data protection authority, which oversees the application of the GDPR, including the handling of complaints. Examples include the CNIL in France and the BfDI in Germany.

In addition, the United Kingdom retained the GDPR by incorporating it into its own data privacy law after Brexit, although the core principles of the GDPR have remained largely the same. The UK’s data protection regulator is the ICO.

The role of these authorities is to:

• investigate complaints from individuals (called data subjects);
• conduct audits and compliance checks;
• issue fines or corrective actions when violations occur.

GDPR applies to both B2C and B2B email marketing campaigns. There is no exemption for targeting professionals, as you are still processing their personal data.

Penalties for noncompliance

First of all, we’re not here to scare anyone with huge fines. While GDPR does allow for penalties of up to €20 million or 4% of global turnover, such amounts are typically reserved for serious or systemic violations that cause clear harm to many individuals.

If we’re talking about a complaint about receiving a newsletter someone didn’t subscribe to, it will most likely result in a warning or a request to correct the issue — such as removing the recipient from your contact list or updating your privacy policy.

That said, even a single complaint can trigger an investigation, especially if your data practices are unclear or lack a proper legal basis.

Now let’s move on to the formal part — a brief overview of how fines and warnings are handled under the GDPR.

There are two tiers of administrative fines, depending on the nature of the violation:

Tier 1: Up to €10 million or 2% of annual global turnover.

For violations such as:

• weak data protection practices by you or your service providers (like your email platform or CRM);
• poor cooperation with regulators.

Tier 2: Up to €20 million or 4% of annual global turnover.

For more serious violations, including:

• breaching the core principles of data processing (lawfulness, transparency, purpose limitation, etc.);
• failing to obtain valid consent;
• ignoring data subject rights (like the right to access, erase, or transfer data);
• unlawful international data transfers;
• disregarding orders from supervisory authorities.

In addition to, or instead of, paying fines, regulatory penalties may also include:

• official warnings or reprimands;
• temporary or permanent bans on processing data;
• mandatory data deletion;
• audits and ongoing monitoring.

Finally, reputational damage can be just as costly. While a GDPR fine won’t directly land your emails in spam folders, poor data practices can lead to low engagement, spam complaints, or public backlash — and subsequently damage your sender reputation and hurt deliverability.

Wrapping up

Data privacy laws like the GDPR affect digital marketing at every level — from how you collect data to how you segment, target, and communicate with audiences. By complying with it, you respect your audience’s personal data and uphold the integrity of your outreach. When you choose the right legal basis for communication, offer clear opt-outs, and follow responsible data practices, you lay the foundation for GDPR-compliant email marketing that’s sustainable, ethical, and protects your sender reputation.